How To Use Textbooks In Your Layouts

Welcome to another Monday, Trixie fans. I hope your week is off to a good start.

Today’s Masters Monday came about in kind of a strange way. I was thinking about things I had going on in my life and one big thing is that I’m taking a Russian class. It occured to me that I had not only my course book for Russian, but my Dad had found a French text book at a thrift store years ago and because it was the same book I used in high school, I asked him if I could have it. I decided it’d be fun to use both books in a layout.

The problem I keep having while learning Russian is that all the French I learned is coming forefront to my brain. When I want to say something in Russian, the French translation is what pops into my head first. It gets really confusing and makes me crazy. So I decided to make a layout describing the situation.

To incorporate the text books into my layout, I scanned a random vocabulary page from both books and then merged it together with a paper from the kit I was using. You can see the new background pages below.

I didn’t really care what words were on them or really that it repeated so many times – it’s only serving as a background paper and it’ll help get the point across.

Here’s my completed layout.

I used the Russian vocabulary in the smaller background spot because I’m not retaining it as quickly, and the French takes up the bigger spot because it’s what my brain automatically goes to.

If you’ve got old textbooks lying around, find a way to use them in a layout. Got current textbooks driving you crazy? Find a fun way to use them for just a few minutes. Take a picture of the spines of all the classes you might be taking or perhaps borrow books from someone desribing something you’d like to learn. Use the cover of a textbook as a background paper, or an overlay. A picture of yourself studying perhaps? Those are just a few things I thought of. I’d love to see what you can come up with, so share your work in the gallery.

My layout was made using a template from the Standing Alone Vol. 2 template pack and the Value Bundle for New Kid In Class. Both of which are 50% off thru May 8th. In fact the whole store is 50% off until May 8th, so don’t miss this chance to get some awesome stuff for half off.